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03 March 2011

Review: Supernatural 6.15 The French Mistake

Ben Edlund’s mind is a very very dark place. I think it’s as dark as the mind of Joss Whedon or Eric Kripke. But Ben Edlund is cheeky. He likes to have fun and he takes risks and he comes up with some of the craziest ideas. I mean, this is the guy who pitched the Ghost Facers idea to Kripke in season 3 in style -- he sang the song to Kripke!

Everything happened in the episode The French Mistake was headline-worthy. Hollywood stars have the habit of getting themselves into trouble, the off-the-camera stuff is more news worthy than the actual show and it's not uncommon to hear about cast and crew don't get along. Edlund had the license to go nuts with his ideas or should I say, Edlund has the license to kill, literally! We'll get to that.

Edund is not any writer in the business, he is a writer on the show Supernatural. I think you have to be very weird to be a writer on the show. Edlund is the perfect writer for this episode.

If the fake Supernatural was real, we will see the following headlines. Thank Chuck, we are not Two and a Half Men!

BREAKING NEWS: Production of Supernatural has been shut down for good. The decision was made following some shocking deaths, assaults and drugs allegations. First, the troubled stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were seen smuggling drugs and beating up an extra on the set. It was not clear that Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were either still on drugs or suffering from a serious mental breakdown. But witnesses said, at least they were talking to each other. The series leads stormed off the set after a heated discussion with Executive Producer Bob Singer. Witnesses said the series creator was on the set to resolve the issue, but he was shot dead by the extra who got beaten up by Ackles and Padalecki. A series of unfortunate events didn't stop there, earlier on the week, series regular Misha Collins was stabbed to death in an alleyway.

Stuff like this not only made headlines, they made the front cover of Variety, right?

This time, the crew was under the spotlight in the episode. I won't be surprised if there were more Easter Eggs in this episode than it appeared. In the tradition of Supernatural the Kripke style, Kripke likes to kill off characters including Dean and Sam, but of course they usually come back from being dead. In this episode, Edlund turned things around and killed the crew, including Kripke. I think the guy who dodged the bullet in slow motion survived?

Edlund is so masterful he didn't write himself into the story. I guess because the studio has very strict rules about crew being on the show, and if Edlund has to cast someone to play him, it would be himself! The guy is irreplaceable!

Misha Collins plays the fake Misha and the real Castiel. This guy is at the top of his game. His performance in the scene where he thought Jensen and Jared (aka Dean and Sam) were pranking him, was flipping amazing. At first, I thought Misha was just doing his Cas thing with the frowny face and deep voice, but I realised the reason he ‘switched’ his expression in that quick second was because he was fake Misha, he was just reading his lines. His tweet "Ola mishamigos! J2 got me good. Really starting to feel like one of the guys" was awesome! Misha also tweeted this on Twitter on the night of the broadcast. If you hadn't watched the episode and saw his tweet, you'd be like WTF? Later on the episode, fake Misha also tweeted "IMHO J&J had a late one last night. Rotflmfao!" Seriously this guy is really having fun! Misha's performance as the fake him was just so awesome he deserved the best supporting actor at the Golden Globe or something. But of course he is too good for those awards clowns.

What about Jensen and Jared? I thought Jared in particular was a good sport. I think it does up to him when it comes to having Gen in the episode as his wife. How that process was done, I had no idea, but I assume Edlund won't write Gen in if Jared refused to do so. I really enjoyed seeing Gen on the show as Gen! I guess Jensen is more private and perhaps he did request Edlund to leave him and Danneel out of this? It would've been awesome to see Danneel on the show. Clif was saying on Twitter, Jensen doesn't have a giant fish tank and Jared doesn't have a Luthor mansion in real life. I suppose this is a Supernatural episode afterall, it's not a reality show on Jensen and Jared, but you can see how much fun Edlund had in writing this episode, how much fun it was to shoot this episode from the cast and crew point of view.

The one scene that made me jumped from my chair and punched my fist into the air was this scene! I don't expect to see Cas' wings at all! It was a bit random but it was awesome!! YES! I bought a new iPad sleeve with wings just for Cas! Do you know how epic it was? This was only the second we saw his wings in the history of the show!

Moving onto the mytho, it's obvious that we will see more on the war of heaven, those weapons will come in place. Purgatory, the Mother and more angels will all arrive at the same destination later on this season. I particular enjoyed Baltazer's appearance. I really want him to be a good friend to Cas and I don't want to see another Zach or Anna. As much as I enjoyed Zach and Anna on the show who served a purpose in the overall story arc, I think it's refreshing to see a good friend, I want Cas to have a good angel buddy. I mean, apart from Cas, Gabriel is my favorite, but he wasn't a friend. And I really want someone, an angel, to support him as a friend.

Supernatural started in an unusual manner this season, but I think in the tradition of the show, they don't throw something out there and don't follow through. So watch this space.

The French Mistake was an awesome episode, it's fun and it has the mytho of season 6 in it and oh... I would love Edlund to do a commentary for this episode. Edlund is confirmed to direct 6.20 The Man Who Would Be King.